LightSquared Files for Bankruptcy

LightSquared filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday, explaining that it needs “breathing room” to resolve regulatory issues that have prevented it from building its planned 4G broadband wireless network.

The filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York comes nearly a year-and-a-half after the FCC granted the company a waiver to begin building the network in the L-band frequency, setting off a storm of protest from the aviation industry and other users of GPS concerned about the threat of interference with navigation receivers operating in the same band. The FCC withdrew the waiver in February after the National Telecommunications and Information Administration had concluded that there was no practical way to mitigate potential interference with GPS.

LightSquared says it will continue pursuing its communications system. “The filing was necessary to preserve the value of our business and to ensure continued operations,” the company said in a press release. “The voluntary Chapter 11 filing is intended to give LightSquared sufficient breathing room to continue working through the regulatory process that will allow us to build our 4G wireless network.”